Slashdot Mirror

How falsified registrations become votes

Anita MonCrief, an ACORN whistle-blower who worked for both it and its Project Vote registration affiliate from 2005 until early this year, agrees. "It's ludicrous to say that fake registrations can't become fraudulent votes," she told me. "I assure you that if you can get them on the rolls you can get them to vote, especially using absentee ballots." MonCrief, a 29-year old University of Alabama graduate who wanted to become part of the civil rights movement, worked as a strategic consultant for ACORN as well as a development associate with Project Vote and sat in on meetings with the national staffs of both groups. She has given me documents that back up many of her statements, including one that indicates that the goal of ACORN's New Mexico affiliate was that only 40 percent of its submitted registrations had to be valid.

MonCrief also told me that some ACORN affiliates had a conscious strategy of flooding voter registration offices with suspect last-minute forms in part to create confusion and chaos that would make it more likely suspect voters would be allowed to cast ballots by overworked officials. Nate Toller, who worked on ACORN registration drives and headed an ACORN campaign against Wal-Mart in California until 2006, agrees. "There's no quality control on purpose, no checks and balances," he told me.

Polls indicate that Obama will win the election with a sizable Democratic majority in both houses as well. This gives him two options to lead the country:

1) He leads from the left (or the center of his party) and the Democrats ram their ajenda past the hapless Republicans in the legislature. This is the easiest approach, but I fear that it will alienate the 45% of the population who didn't vote Democrat, in the same way that Bush has alienated Democrats. The result is a productive, but unpopular president.

2) He leads from the center (or the right of his party) and tries to be post-partisan even when he doesn't have to. This approach is going to be fairly challenging, because the legislature can tell him to bugger off and adopt method #1 without him. However, if he's successful, he could end up being one of the best presidents in history. With all of the gigantic issues coming to the fore in his presidency, if Obama can actually muster the bipartisan government he claims to support, the resulting solutions to energy, healthcare, taxes, and the budget deficit will be triumphant.

I'm not optimistic that he'll be able to pull off #2, but if you look at his balanced approach at the Harvard Law Review, there's some hope that he'll at least try.

So since you are so very Concerned over the issue of experience

No, not experience. I was just defending the point, that Obama's support for two competing sport-teams is important (in judging his character) in the absence of much else known about him. If we had much else to go by with him, fine — I am not a sports fan myself. But we don't, and his willingness to please the crowd with such lies is telling volumes.

Appeal to a local sports-team must be a Democratic fixture... When Clintons settled in NY, Hillary claimed to have always been a Yankees fan. Yeah, right... But, at least, she didn't contradict herself in front of Mets fans the way Obama did.

Actually, no, I'd like to know, that who I'm voting for will be who hands the power over to the next president-elect. I don't want an opportunist, who "adapts and changes" with the latest breeze.

So being a good sport and praising the other team is a bad thing now? Doesn't surprise me really. Looking at partisan politics today, it's all about backing your team no matter what and bashing your opponent at every opportunity, as you just illustrated. It's killing our country and reducing the level of debate to a shouting match between drunken idiots. Please refrain from joining the melee.

A person running for the highest office in the land, who is expected to adapt and change as the world does[emphasis mine -mi]

Actually, no, I'd like to know, that who I'm voting for will be who hands the power over to the next president-elect. I don't want an opportunist, who "adapts and changes" with the latest breeze.

Really, you're big flip-flop citation is about baseball teams? Very important stuff that is.

And yes, we would never want a candidate who could adapt his views based on new knowledge and insight, because the opposite has worked so well over the last 8 years.

A person running for the highest office in the land, who is expected to adapt and change as the world does[emphasis mine -mi]

Actually, no, I'd like to know, that who I'm voting for will be who hands the power over to the next president-elect. I don't want an opportunist, who "adapts and changes" with the latest breeze.

But I digress. The point was not even, whether it is Ok for McCain to use his wife's help with e-mail, because his hands hurt (he can't use the comb himself, because his hands were broken by the Vietnamese during real torturing). The point was, whether or not such ridiculing would be a vote-getter or not...

Low level enlisted personel reported listening in on superiors private conversations through the warrantless wire tapping laws. Who knows how many other fucked up bureaucrats spend their days getting themselves off listening to conversations that citizens of the US should have the expectation to be private. And before we say if you don't have anything to hide, remember that Sarah Palin cried like a little girl when her account was hacked and wasted huge amounts of federal dollars looking for the person who did it. If you don't have anything to hide...

In fact I wonder how much of this economic meltdown is caused by the realization that there are no more corporate secrets. Every communique can be intercepted by some disgruntled government worker and be sold to the highest bidder. How much of the meltdown is caused by the realization that Obama might become president, and therefore all the good old boys who were used to breakin' the law, might now be on the ass end of warrentless wire tap. Such abuse of power was OK when a drunk frat boy had the keys.

And let's look a old Joe. The most that will happen to these government worker bees is that they get fired, on assumes, which is OK because this is not the worst that these government workers did to old Joe. Reportedly, someone typed in his name wrong. If the Republican party had their way, Old Joe would not have been able to vote because he drivers license would not have matched his voter registration card . This disenfranchise is reportedly due to a "clerical error". We are now giving low level bureaucrats the power to at least attempt to disenfranchise voters. Can you imagine what would happen if a bunch of voter registration cards came in from a republican area, and the clerk decided to misspell every few names, knowing that a law such as the republicans want to curb voter fraud might at least disenfranchise a few of them?

We really need get back to the constructionist ideals of this country, where those that will trade freedom for security deserve neither.

Comedians mock Sarah Palin's apparent stupidity while ignoring that Joe Biden said Americans were huddled around television sets to see President Roosevelt.

I'm not going to defend Biden, or any politician for that matter, but you should know that the Biden Roosevelt comment has be covered extensively and that what Biden said is quite likely true. NY, where Roosevelt was then Governor had an actively broadcasting television station since 1927, over a year before the stock market crash in question. Biden never said "current president Roosevelt" and only mentioned that Roosevelt made a speech and that some people would have seen him make his speech on TV.

Now it's true that Biden was probably just mistaken and made a slip up as he was born when the event took place and has probably only read about Roosevelt's speeches, but that the fact still stands that he was probably right, and it's a minor mistake that his proponents like to hold on too. Mistakenly saying TV instead of Radio is nothing compared to the stupidity level that Palin has reached (just google "stupid Palin"). Biden doesn't think that New Hampshire is in the Northwest, or that Afghanistan neighbors the United States

True Palin has yet to reach Bush levels of stupid, but it won't be long, if the idiots of this country elect her as vice president.

Actually, I suspect the reason his videos aren't reported as much is that whenever Bin Laden shows his face, it energizes Americans and makes them more likely to vote Republican. The media is ridiculously pro-Obama this year and does not want a repeat of 2004 when Bin Laden released a video and threatened Americans a week before the election. We're in a media environment in which the New York Times will run an editorial by Obama but refuse to run one by McCain. Comedians mock Sarah Palin's apparent stupidity while ignoring that Joe Biden said Americans were huddled around television sets to see President Roosevelt. Palin is criticized for her religious views, yet Obama is a Christian who went to the church of reverend Wright for 20 years, and Joe Biden is a Catholic (amazingly, McCain is the least religious candidate).

So I wouldn't worry about any Bin Laden videos popping up to energize conservative voters this time.

SO you like racists who believe women have no rights and they should do whatever the hell they want regardless of how it impacts people? well done. Ron Paul - The selfish bastards candidate.

Dude, what are you on today? Ron Paul is the candidate of the individual, any individual. Can you cite any examples of racism or sexism from him?

Yes, I want a fiscally conservative, social liberal republicans back.

Yeah, that's a Classical Liberal, ala Jefferson. And pretty damn close to Ron Paul's position.

Funny, I don't know any liberals that want to take away guns, only liberals who want there to be personal responsibility in owning them.

Now you're just off the deep end. Did you follow Heller? Obama's position on banning the ownership of handguns (if ever there was a sexist policy).

I want people to own a gun if they want to, hell several guns.
If that person firearm goes off accidentally and kills someone, I want them held responsible.
Statistically that's not very likely, but it does happen.

Amen to that.

Dear Mr. Norris,

Why don't we make it an even $1,000,000,000,000 (ONE TRILLION) dollars? We can use the extra $300,000,000,000 (THREE HUNDRED BILLION) dollars to buy up mortgages so that taxpayers lose money when the loans default, instead of the banks. My economists are convinced that it's a great way to prove that I'm actually a Socialist who understands the economy so that those loony liberals elect me instead of that one.

I look forward to your reply, my friends.

Sincerely,

John Sidney McCain

Read the Patriot Act and the FISA bill for your self and see:

Patriot Act:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act
http://epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html
http://www.rense.com/general34/takeover.htm

FISA bill:
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FISA_Amendments_Act_of_2008
http://www.politico.com/static/PPM104_080619_fisapromise.htm

off-topic somewhat... those same Congress-Critters who are attempting to bailing out Wall Street don't work a full 40-hour week themselves... Think about that one for a minute. Congress scuttles longer workweek

Now, consider the FACT that Obama lied about having ties to a known terrorist.

Err... [Citation needed]

Please.

Google is your friend. May I suggest "obama ties to terrorist" as a good starting point. If you don't have access to Google, let me help you out:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/barone/2008/8/22/obama-needs-to-explain-his-ties-to-william-ayers.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers

Need more?

Typical. You choose to ignore the truth. Palin lied about using email for government business. It is not only lying it's a violation of the law and the only reason to use email that way is to avoid disclosure. She's already acting and thinking like a crooked politician.

I saw the screenshots before they were scrubbed and saw nothing that was illegal. Care to provide a link that I may have missed that shows "illegal" activity? There is none. That's why this is such a joke.

And what are these "ties to a known terrorist". Did you get that from Fox News?

No, Google. Search for "Obama William ayers" HERE if you are too lazy to do your own research.

Either way, you're willing to accept a lying crooked politician in Palin. Why is that? Rather than choosing a candidate who is honest and honorable you're choosing between different levels of crap (assuming your argument about terrorists is real, which I doubt). Instead why don't you pick a good candidate instead of the lesser of two shitty ones. Seems like common sense, but common sense goes out the door with politics, doesn't it:? . . . Typical indeed!

You have not shown that Palin is a lying cooked politician. But you do have a point, we need a third party candidate. Unfortunately, we won't until we pass some sort of legislation that states that a President must receive so many electoral votes (or percentage) in order to win. If they don't, there is a run off between the top two candidates. Louisiana does this with their local elections and it works pretty well.

Citation please.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/10/us/politics/10fannie.graphic.jpg . That's a graphic showing contributions from the officers of Fannie and Freddie.

And then look at this: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html. Read the comments at the bottom. Several people come up with seemingly plausible and vastly conflicting numbers, using cherry-picked data from the source: http://www.fec.gov/disclosure.shtml.

This from politico is ubiquitous: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11781.html. From July.

International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/10/america/lobby.php. Note that several top members of McCain's team were actually real-life lobbyists for Fannie Mae (they've all since found Jesus, of course).

Even after all that, I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

[...] or whatever they are called [...]

Indeed. You should read about them. It sounds like you aren't even sure about what they are.

You probably need to know this, too:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateralized_debt_obligation
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis

Your credulity is being cynically taken advantage of. Either that, or you're racking up your McCain points.

Abortion : Exclusive: Obama's lost law review article ...The six-page summary, tucked into the third volume of the year's Harvard Law Review, considers the charged, if peripheral, question of whether fetuses should be able to file lawsuits against their mothers. Obama's answer, like most courts': No. He wrote approvingly of an Illinois Supreme Court ruling that the unborn cannot sue their mothers for negligence, and he suggested that allowing fetuses to sue would violate the mother's rights and could, perversely, cause her to take more risks with her pregnancy...

Is the observation that politicians are duplicitous and insincere really a troll?

Only to the most dedicated GOP astroturfers who are being paid in "McCain Points" to ply their trolling trade on popular blogs.

Here's the link, if you don't believe it.

Read this if you want to understand her management style. I would never work for a boss like her.

And if you have read any of the many books about problems in the Bush administration, you'll know that this paranoia over loyalty is one of the things that has made Bush such a terrible president. Bush hires cronies instead of people who know what they're doing, which is how we got to "Heck of a job, Brownie!"

At least there, you can make a stark contrast with Obama. His campaign has had the least internal drama of anyone and all the reports about how he manages people say that he does exceptionally well, as you can read here.

I don't know about anyone else, but I want a leader who doesn't think serving the community doesn't count as experience, but telling people "it's my way or the highway" does.

I have to um, you know,... kinda disagree with you on that one, Bob...
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/29/clinton-congratulates-palin/
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/08/29/ha_say_the_online_hillary_supp.html
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Palin_courts_Hillary_backers.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oun4WWr3j3I

I think this should be prioritized over voting 3rd-party in a presidential race. You can't effectively organize and support a national campaign that can challenge the mainstream parties, unless you have significant electorates across the country.

I completely agree with the prioritization. That's pretty much what most Ron Paul supporters have been doing as well. They have been volunteering and organizing for local candidates who support Ron Paul's views rather than debate on which third party candidate to vote for.

The biggest thing "nerds" can do to make a difference is to become a leader. Organize well-meaning people regardless of political affiliation to take over local government and make it work for you. If you don't get involved in politics you'll end up with idiots and psychopaths ruling over you. Take a class in basic criminology and you'll learn that psychopaths tend to seek powerful positions. What's more powerful than being a politician, especially considering the amount of power government has awarded itself in the past 220 years.

Main point: become a leader!

In 2008, Obama will simply out-organize you, while McCain will outspend you and use the right-wing media to destroy your reputation

Obama is actually well ahead in spending and "raising" money. Big corporations don't like to bet on a loser.

Theres a good pile of evidence that this Texas wind thing is one giant con so that Oil man Mr. Pickens can use newly created government power of eminent domain to snatch up land and sell his water pet project under the radar.

I wouldn't be surprised. But, even without Pickens' wind (and water?) project, the existing wind turbines in West Texas are having difficulty delivering their full potential to where it is needed.

Anyone who thinks someone who was part of the 80's raiders and swift boating can actually do something without a hidden con is a fucking idiot.

There's no need for a partisan attitude -- hidden agendas are bipartisan pursuits. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who despite her efforts to save the planet by blocking repeal of offshore drilling bans, is apparently under the impression that natural gas isn't a fossil fuel. Maybe she is influenced by her investment of 100-250K in Clean Energy Fuels Corp, a company run by Pickens that markets compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas as a fuel for motor vehicles.

Actually C-Span went off too. They don't have control of the cameras.

But I've got to love it--we've got a hacker in the bunch:

The Politico reports, "Also, Republicans can thank Shadegg for turning on the microphones the first time. Apparently, the fiesty Arizona conservative started typing random codes into the chamber's public address system and accidentally typed the correct code, allowing Republicans brief access to the microphone before it was turned off again."

And PULEESE let's not pretend that Dems haven't done these stunts too. They've all run out to the steps to protest medicare changes, travelgate report and other times when they were in the minority and things weren't going their way.

Our Congress is tame when you compare it to other countries. Just try watching the PM speak before the UK parliment or legislation in places like Taiwan, India, S. Korea, etc. where they break out in fist fights.

Changing a bill after it had been passed

One aspect of the pending FBI investigation centers on Young's role in securing a $10 million earmark in the $286.5 billion highway bill passed in 2005. The earmark, which was inserted in the bill after final passage by the House of Representatives and Senate, was for a study of a highway ramp sought by a Florida real estate developer. At a fundraiser while on a trip to Bonita Springs, Fla., to inspect the site, Young received more than $40,000 in donations.

Holding open vote

CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports there was chaos on the Hour floor as Republican leaders passed the bill by holding a five-minute vote open for almost 50 minutes until they could convince two Republicans to change their votes.

They buttonholed lawmakers for last-minute lobbying as Democrats complained loudly that the vote should be closed. Finally two GOP lawmakers switched from "no" to "yes," giving the bill's supporters the margin of victory.

(additional examples)
It is against House rules to keep a vote open in order to alter the outcome.

a recorded vote by electronic device shall not be held open for the sole purpose of reversing the outcome of such vote.

"Abusive holds" is difficult to quantify but I'd point towards Tom Coburn's extensive holds.

What actually happened, of course, was that the House adjourned for its August recess. As scheduled. Just like it does every year. Presumably it was scheduled months in advance. Everyone knew it.

Except this time the minority party refused to, you know, leave. Though the government is not in session, the Republicans insist on hanging around anyway.

Actually, Congress is going into recess a week earlier than they had planned. You can see here the original date for them to start August recess was August 9th.

Plain and simple this is an effort to freeze debate on matters central to the upcoming presidential election, most notably the offshore drilling issue. This issue hinges on the theory that the current gas price crunch could be significantly helped by opening up offshore drilling, a theory heavily supported by Republican presidential candidate John McCain. The truly interesting fact is that the Majority Leader Harry Reid (a Democrat from Nevada) previously threatened to CANCEL the August recess if two key Democratic bills weren't decided in time for the recess.

Smells a bit of hypocrisy if you ask me.

or a couple of fancy public restrooms in some Congressman's district for a park any rarely uses.

Earmarks alone consume more science money than we can imagine. Look, the DOD will always be here, its a requirement to maintain our standard of living and be able to scare the pants of petty 3rd world dictators who think neighboring countries are new areas to invade or people of certain ethnic traits need to die.

The real crime in our government is earmarks, essentially buying their seats of power with our tax dollars. I was dumb enough to expect some change when the Democrats moved in on their campaign of Republican corruption but they are far more corrupt that those replaced. Hell they have tried to pass rules to hide earmarks or use fancy talk to hide the fact of what they were. I just wish there were some real viable 3rd parties but for every good idea many have they have too many crackpots to be taken seriously. This doesn't even count the problems the face with the press which is in bed with the Democrats and Republicans.

Worse, some of the people running for office are suggesting cuts in NASA! This is all about votes, NASA and weirdly named science groups don't garner votes like a new highway; conveniently named for your local Congressmen; library, swimming pool, or yeah, a glorified outhouse.

I would rather pay for those 6m seats in a F22 than in an outhouse.

Oh, yeah a bit of exaggeration but 200k for an outhouse does happen and its "justified" http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080601/NEWS/806010321/1001

219k for wool research? Happened.

Think the Congress will take action, oh yeah, they told us loud and clear http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/13/earmark.vote/ and http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11451.html

Want more ? http://earmarks.omb.gov/by-tracking/summary.html

Sheesh people, they want you to bitch about the war and the military. It allows them to roll right on by under your nose while you have it up in the air in "righteous indignation". Keep buying it. Maybe someone will come along and promise change .... and you will buy that like we did in 2006

Rove isn't McCain's campaign director. It's unfair to tarnish McCain for Rove's actions (especially when he was a victim of them, himself, in 2000 and 2004).

Point of fact, Rove may not be McCain's campaign director, but he is advising McCain.

I think the parent's point was not that Karl Rove is a major force in the McCain campaign, but that people "the likes of Karl Rove" are.
 
And besides, Karl is doing plenty to contribute.

Is Ross Perot going to run again too? I miss that guy.

less likely after realizing last month that obama is not a muslim: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0108/Perot_pleasantly_surprised.html

>
Negatives: ...as President
Will hit funding bind (accepted Public Funding)

No, actually, he HASN'T accepted public funding, despite his campaign's financial problems this summer. He has promised to accept public funding in the general election (in support of campaign finance reform) if the democratic nominee does as well.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/2965.html

Try this XML file that the Flash pulls its data from. Very simple, looks easy to parse; I'm already working on correlating the data.

Interestingly, Clinton did far better than the exit poll numbers in the locales which were tallied by LHS from Diebold (now Premier) machines, while Obama won in the municipalities which were counted by hand. The discrepancy is about 5%. You can check this yourself. Here's the database of counting systems Bev Harris collated from information supplied by the Secretary of State of New Hampshire before the primary: http://www.bbvdocs.org/NH/state/Jan-08-votingsystems-NH.txt -- and here you can find the AP vote tallies: http://www.politico.com/nhprimaries/nhmap-popup.html (I'd appreciate a better source than this flash, BTW.)

for U.S. Attorney General.

On the plus side, I bet it will be tough to claim executive privilege on those e-mails.